Gareth Edwards has stepped in to replace David Leitch on the new Jurassic World, which is getting ready for a 2025 release.
Earlier this month, we heard that Atomic Blonde's David Leitch would be directing the new Jurassic World, only to find out a week later that that was no longer the case. Universal and Amblin needed to find a director on the double given that the film is set to release next summer and post production work will be very extensive indeed, we’d imagine.
Well, now we know who Leitch’s replacement is, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, it looks as though Gareth Edwards is returning to major franchise filmmaking as he’s in talks to direct the new Jurassic World film, set for release in 2025.
Gareth Edwards seems like the perfect fit for this project. He excels at employing visual effects and brings films in on time and on budget. Working with a script from original Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp and maybe even having Steven Spielberg offering a few tips should ensure that the story side of things hums along nicely as well.
Despite Edwards possessing huge potential as an artist, the process of making 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with Lucasfilm was a pretty harrowing one, and it would be seven years before he would bring another project to the screen.
That project would be The Creator, an absorbing science fiction adventure that would once again highlight Gareth Edwards’ clear strengths as a filmmaker: incredible visual effects given the film’s modest budget, not to mention some deeply impressive world-building (given that the film was an original story set in a world we hadn’t seen before).
We called The Creator ‘the best science fiction movie of 2023’ (you can catch our review here) and ever since the film’s release, we’ve been looking forward to seeing what Edwards would turn his hand to next.
Given that the clock really is ticking on the next Jurassic World, we can’t help but feel that Edward’s tumultuous experience on Rogue One, not to mention helming creature features like Godzilla and Monsters makes him perfectly placed to create something memorable. The film itself is supposed to launch in a new direction for the Jurassic World films and likely won’t see any cast members from previous films returning.
We’ll let you know more on this one as we hear it, including casting news, given that the film is set to go before cameras in a couple of months….
